Reclosable carton



NOV. 18, 1969 H w FQRRER ET AL 3,478,953

RECLOSABLE CARTON Filed Jan. 1.9, 1968 I NVENTORS HOMER W. FORRER 36 JAMES R. CHAPMA AT TORNEY United States Patent US. Cl. 229-51 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A carton of the so-called trunk style is disclosed wherein a body portion is provided together with a cover portion hingedly adjoined to the body portion. A sealing flap forms a disjointable connection between the part of the cover remote from its hinge line and the body portion of the carton. A reclosing aperture is formed in a wall of the body portion and receives a reclosing tab formed in the sealing panel. The reclosing tab is defined by the upper edge of a pull strap struck from the sealing flap and foldably secured thereto at its ends by fold lines, the lower edge of the pull strap being defined by the upper edge of the tear strip. Thus when the tear strip is removed, the carton may be opened 'by manually engaging and manipulating the pull strap. The carton is maintained in closed condition by the locking tab which is inserted into the adjacent coincidental locking aperture.

A carton constructed according to the invention is particularly advantageous due to the fact that the pull strap provided according to this invention is engageable manually so that it is not necessary to make contact with the reclosing tab, the cover manipulating pull strap being defined along its bottom edge by the manually removable tear strip and along its top edge by the bottom edge of the pull tab.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference may be had to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a reclosable carton which embodies the invention and which is shown in its normal closed position with the contents therein and before removal of the tear strip; FIG. 2 is a perspective view similar to FIG. 1 and which depicts the carton of FIG. 1 after the tear strip has been removed and at the completion of a reclosing operation; FIG. 3 is a plan view of a blank from which the carton depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2 is formed; and in which FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the reclosing structure.

In the drawings, the numeral 1 designates the bottom panel of the carton and the numeral 2 depicts the front wall thereof. Front wall 2 is foldably joined to bottom wall 1 along fold line 3. Similarly, back wall 4 of the carton is foldably joined to bottom wall 1 along fold line 5. Bottom end panels 6 and 7 are foldably joined to opposite ends 8 and 9 of bottom panel 1. Back end panels 10 and 11 are foldably joined to back panel 4 along fold lines 12 and 13 respectively. End front panels 14 and 15 are foldably joined along fold lines 16 and 17 respectively to the end edges of front wall 2. Arcuate locking slots 18 and 19 are formed in front end panels 14 and 15 and their ends coincide with score lines 20 and 21 respectively. The locking hooks 22 and 23 formed in back end panels 10 and 11 respectively cooperate with arcuate locking slits 14 and 19 in known manner. The elements described above constitute the trunk portion of the carton which is formed by simply first folding the bottom end panels 6 and 7 along their fold lines 8 and 3,478,953 Patented Nov. 18, 1969 ice 9 into positions of angular relationship with the bottom panel 1. Thereafter front end panel 14 is overlapped and interlocked with back end panel 10 in known manner, the locking hook 22 being simply inserted into the arcuate locking slot 18. Similarly, front end panel 15 is interlocked with back end panel 11 by simply inserting locking hook 23 into the arcuate locking slot 19.

The cover portion of the carrier comprises a lid panel 24 which is foldably joined to back wall panel 4 along fold line 25 together with end flaps 26 and 27 which are foldably joined along fold lines 28 and 29 to lid panel 24 respectively. Furthermore, sealing flap 30 is foldably joined along fold line 31 to the front edge of lid panel 24.

With the body portion of the carton assembled as described and with the cover closed as depicted in FIG. 1 for example, the lower edge portion 32 of the sealing flap 30 is affixed as by glue or other suitable means to the exterior surface of front wall 2. In the closed condition, the cover end flaps 26 and 27 are disposed inside the interlocked end flaps 10, 14 and 11, 15 in known manner.

In order to open the carton depicted in FIG. 1, the conventional tear strip 33 is simply grasped at one end thereof and torn away. This operation disengages the top portion 34 of the sealing flap 30 from the front wall 2 of the body portion of the carton and thus conditions the cover for opening.

The carton may be opened by employing the pull strap constructed according to this invention and designated in the drawing by the numeral 35. Pull strap 35 is arranged so that its lower edge is adjoined by severance line 36 to the upper edge of tear strip 33 so that when the tear strip 33 is removed when opening the carton, the lower edge of pull strap 35 is detached automatically from the tear strip 33. The ends of pull strap 35 are defined by a pair of relief slits 37 and 38 and by a pair of fold lines 39 and 40. The upper edge of pull strap 35 is defined by horizontal cut line 41 and by a pair of angularly disposed cut lines 42 and 43. Cut lines 41, 42 and 43 define a reclosing tab generally designated in the drawing by the numeral 44.

In order to open or close the carton after the tear strip 33 has been removed, it is simply necessary to grasp the pull strap 35 at approximately the mid portion thereof and to manipulate the cover of the carton as desired. Of course this lifting and manipulating operation may be effected according to one facet of the invention without actually grasping the locking tab 44. Since an outward force on pull strap 35 tends to swing the panel 34 away from front wall 2, opening is facilitated particularly if the carton contents have somehow become lodged between panel 34 and front wall 2.

In order to reclose the carton, the reclosing tab 44 is simply pressed inwardly as depicted for example in FIG. 2 and the reclosing tab 44 thereafter is inserted into the reclosing aperture defined by retaining tab 45 formed in front wall 2. Of course the fact that retaining tab 45 is generally rectangular in configuration, accommodates ready manipulation of the reclosing tab 44 into and out of the reclosing aperture defined by retaining tab 45 as is well understood by those skilled in the art.

From FIG. 4 it is apparent that relief slits 37 and 38 tend to facilitate the manipulation of the pull strap 35 by allowing the lower edges thereof to be swung outwardly relative to the sealing flap 30. Furthermore, this action is facilitated by the fact that the fold lines 39 and 40 are angularly disposed with respect to each other and in a general direction such that outward folding of pull strap 35 is facilitated and such action forces the locking tab to swing inwardly thereby facilitating reclosing of the carton.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows.

We claim:

1. A reclosable carton having a body portion, a cover portion hinged to said body portion, a sealing panel adjoined to an edge of said cover portion and disposed in flat face contacting relation with a wall of said body portion when the carton is closed, means securing a part of said sealing panel remote from said cover portion to said wall, a tear strip formed in said sealing panel and defined by upper and lower severance lines, and wherein the improvement resides in a cover manipulating pull strap struck from the part of said sealing panel Which is disposed between said cover portion and said tear strip, said strap being foldably joined to said sealing panel, a reclosing tab struck from said sealing panel, said reclosing tab being- 2. A carton according to claim 1 wherein said pull strap is longitudinally disposed and foldably joined at its ends to said sealing panel.

3. A carton according to claim 1 wherein said pull strap is disposed immediately below said reclosing tab and wherein the upper edge of said pull strap is configured to define at least a substantial part of said reclosing tab.

4. A carton according to claim 1 wherein said pull strap is longitudinally disposed and wherein at least a part of the lower edge thereof is disjointedably connected with said tear strip.

5. A carton according to claim 2 wherein the fold lines at the ends of said pull tab are angularly disposed to each other and wherein relief slits are arranged to extend between the upper severance line of said tear strip and an end of each of said fold lines respectively.

6. A carton according to claim 1 wherein a retaining tab is struck from said wall of the body portion to define said reclosing aperture in the general configuration of an elongated longitudinal rectangle.

7. A reclosable carton having a body portion, a cover portion hinged to said body portion, a sealing panel adjoined to an edge of said cover portion and disposed in fiat face contacting relation with a wall of said body portion when the carton is closed, means securing a part of said sealing panel remote from said cover portion to said wall, a tear line formed in said sealing panel and wherein the improvement resides in a cover manipulating pull strap struck from the part of said sealing panel which is disposed between said cover portion and said tear line, said strap being foldably joined to said sealing panel, a reclosing tab struck from said sealing panel, said reclosing tab being disposed adjacent to and associated with said pull strap, and a reclosing aperture formed in a wall of said body portion and disposed to receive said reclosing tab.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,864,547 12/ 1958 Guyer 2295 1 3,270,946 9/1966 Redpath et al 229-51 3,368,738 2/1968 Roccaforte et al. 229-51 3,368,739 2/1969 Roccaforte et al 2295l FOREIGN PATENTS 1,484,758 5/1967 France.

DAVIS T. MOORHEAD, Primary Examiner 

